Sleepyhead (Thorne)

''Thorne'' is a British crime drama television series, based on the novels of author Mark Billingham, that was first broadcast on Sky One on 10 October 2010.''The Guardian'', 9 October 2010
"The weekend's TV highlights"
/ref> A single six-episode series, starring David Morrissey in the title role of Detective Inspector Tom Thorne, was broadcast at 21:00 on Sundays until 14 November. As well as Morrissey, the series also stars Aidan Gillen, Eddie Marsan, O-T Fagbenle and Lorraine Ashbourne in supporting roles. The series comprises two three-part dramatisations of the first two ''Thorne'' novels, ''Sleepyhead'' and ''Scaredycat''. ''Sleepyhead'', directed by Stephen Hopkins, previewed in full at the BFI Southbank in London on 4 October 2010, followed by a Q&A session featuring writer Mark Billingham and actors David Morrissey and Eddie Marsan.BFI, 4 October 2010
TV preview: thorne: sleepyhead + Q&A
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Although directly adapted from the novels, there are notable differences in the series, including: Brigstocke's gender has been changed; Dave Holland's ethnicity has been changed; and Phil Hendricks is portrayed as a short, partly tattooed Irishman with a full head of hair, a juxtaposition of the tall, bald, heavily pierced, heavily tattooed Mancunian described in Billingham's novels. In the United States, Encore broadcast all six episodes of the series across two nights. ''Sleepyhead'' and ''Scaredycat'' aired on 12 and 13 June 2012 respectively. The series is also available as a complete box set from Netflix. All six episodes were released on Region 2 DVD and Blu-ray on 10 January 2011.

Production

Prior to filming, David Morrissey commented on how he became involved with the role: "I was doing a film in New Zealand, on my own, in winter. I really needed a book. I stumbled across a Thorne novel, liked it, and then I looked up Mark online and found a question-and-answer session where he said that if his books ever made it to the screen, he’d like me to play the lead. I thought, that’s a good start".Ed Cumming, 8 October 2010, ''The Daily Telegraph''
David Morrissey on Thorne: a British copper, in a US style
/ref> The first two novels adapted for the series were ''Sleepyhead'', in which Thorne has to track down and stop a serial killer who aims to leave his victims alive but unable to communicate because of locked-in syndrome; and ''Scaredy Cat'', in which two serial killers, Martin Palmer and Stuart Nicklin, begin to work in tandem to pick off their victims.

Billingham later expressed a desire to film all ten Thorne novels. Likewise, Morrissey confirmed in February 2011 that a second series had gone into production.''BBC'', 4 February 2011
South Riding – David Morrissey is Robert Carne
/ref> However, in a newsletter issued to members of his mailing list in December 2012, Billingham stated that Morrissey's role in '' The Walking Dead'' had suspended plans for any further series. To date, no further series of ''Thorne'' have been produced.

Reception

The series primarily faced competition from '' Downton Abbey'', ''Single Father'' and a re-run of '' The Da Vinci Code'' on its debut broadcast, although held a 1.5% audience share, drawing in 402,000 viewers, according to BARB.''The Guardian'', 11 October 2010
TV ratings
/ref> Likewise, reviews of the series have been positive, and it holds a score of 74/100 on review aggregation website Metacritic. Tom Sutcliffe of ''The Independent'' wrote approvingly of the direction of director Stephen Hopkins, "who keeps using his camera to catch Thorne from incriminating angles, as if he's a perpetrator not a policeman", and the performances of Morrissey and McElhone.Tom Sutcliffe, ''The Independent'', 11 October 2010
The Weekend's TV
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Andrea Mullaney of ''The Scotsman'', praised the efforts made by BSkyB in the production and casting, but added "it's a shame that our best actors can't be used for anything more radical or real."Andrea Murray, ''The Scotsman'', 12 October 2010
TV review: Thorne: Sleepyhead
/ref> Adam Sweeting of ''The Arts Desk'' wrote a more scathing review, commenting; "Despite the hype, it's just another cop show full of corpses, but Morrissey feels authentic as the phlegmatic, low-key Thorne". He also criticised the romantic link between Morrissey and McElhone, writing; "It was like Vinnie Jones getting off with Joanna Lumley".

Cast

* David Morrissey as DI Tom Thorne
* Eddie Marsan as Kevin Tughan
* Aidan Gillen as Phil Hendricks
* O-T Fagbenle as Dave Holland
* Lorraine Ashbourne as Ruth Brigstocke
* Jack Shepherd as Jim Thorne

Sleepyhead

* Natascha McElhone as Anne Coburn
* Sara Lloyd-Gregory as Alison Willetts
* Aisling Loftus as Rachel Coburn
* Sarah Niles as Maggie Byrne
* Joshua Close as Josh Ramsey
* Brian McCardie as Francis Calvert
* Stephen Campbell Moore as Jeremy Bishop
* Georgia Tennant as Sophie Holland
* Amanda Root as Teresa Maxwell

Scaredy Cat

* Sandra Oh as DS Sarah Chen
* Tom Brooke as Martin Palmer
* Joe Absolom as Stuart Nicklin
* Claire Benedict as Maeve Reynolds
* Lolita Chakrabarti as Seema Khera
* Leo Gregory as Sean Bracher
* Javed Khan as DC Dev Khan
* Velibor Topic as Pavel Rasadovic
* Harry Jarvis as Young Stuart Nicklin

Episodes

References

External links

Thorne page at Sky website
* Liz Hoggard, 4 October 2010
Hit men: 24 director and David Morrissey team up for new crime show Thorne
''Evening Standard''
* http://filmlondon.org.uk/news/2010/october/serial_life_in_east_london
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{{Sky1

2010 British television series debuts
2010 British television series endings
2010s British crime drama television series
2010s British police procedural television series
2010s British television miniseries
English-language television shows
Sky UK original programming
Television shows based on British novels